Nation Of Love

Irma Kotula likes to point out that the homeland of her parents has the word "love" right smack in the middle of the name -- Slovenia.

And she also likes to point out that the name for the country's capital city, Ljubljana, derives from the Slovenian word for love.

"Ya te ljubem is Slovenian for `I love you,'" Kotula said. "Slovenians are a very loving people. They love music and good times."

Kotula, 75, of Oakland Park, is proud of the small Slovene-American community in South Florida, which numbers about 800. On Thursday, the community's members will quietly take note of National Day, which celebrates their country's independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.

"We're just a handful here," Kotula said. "But [National Statehood Day] is an important day in Slovenia."

Most of South Florida's Slovene-Americans are retirees whose parents or grandparents left the old country when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Many of those emigres moved to urban areas in the northern United States near the turn of the century to escape the political and economic turmoil of the region during the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the start of World War I.

Kotula's father was a woodsman who lived in a village called Vrhinca, near Ljubljana. Her mother lived in Zagorje, another nearby village. In 1909, they both moved to America, where they later met. Her father worked in the coal mines of western Pennsylvania for 34 years.

"They lived on opposites sides of the same mountain in Slovenia," Kotula said.

After high school, Kotula moved to Cleveland, where she worked as a medical receptionist. She moved to South Florida in 1957 with her husband, a retired carpenter who is of Polish and Ukrainian heritage.

In 1982, Kotula visited Slovenia for the first time and met her relatives.

"You're in the Carpathian Alps and your neck is bent back all of the time as you look at the beautiful mountains," she said.

Kotula recalled seeing churches on the hillsides overlooking the villages and towns in the valleys. Churches were built on the high ground for a reason, she said.

"People would go up there when the area was invaded by Turks," she said, referring to the raids by Ottoman Turks a few hundred years ago.

Slovenia prides itself on its historic past. A church that Kotula saw on Mount Tabor near her mother's village of Zagorje has a foundation dating to the year 250.

"The Lipizzaner horses originated in Slovenia," she said. "My grandfather on my mother's side was a guard for [Emperor] Franz Josef. I'm very proud of our heritage."

Kotula is president of the Slovenia National Benefit Society, which meets at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Catholic Church in Fort Lauderdale monthly from September through May. The chapter has 85 members, many of whom are retirees.

Another Slovenian organization, the American Slovenian Club, recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. It meets at the Sunrise Community Center, also monthly from September through May.

Like Kotula's organization, the club also is facing an older and dwindling membership.

"At one time we had over 100 members," said Mary Makar, the club's treasurer. "Now we have only 40."

Makar's family lived in Vipava, a city about 25 miles northeast of Trieste, Italy. The Pembroke Pines woman's Slovenian family tree goes back to 1650.

"Earlier records were lost in a church fire back then," Makar said.

Vipava is in a valley that Makar calls "the sunny side of the Alps."

"From Mount Nanos on a clear day you can see the whole harbor of Trieste," Makar said. "It is truly a beautiful country."

Makar's father and grandfather were cabinetmakers who immigrated to Norwalk, Conn., before World War I.

"My grandfather wanted to see what this was all about here in America, and my father followed him," she said.

Eventually the family moved to Brooklyn, where Makar's father worked detailing cars for a Buick dealership.

Makar moved to Florida in 1981 with her husband, who is of Greek heritage, after he retired from his job as a ship chandler. They have visited Slovenia seven times, staying at Makar's great-great-grandfather's house.

Fran Vranicar, of Fort Lauderdale, and her late husband, Martin, were charter members of the American Slovenian Club.

Vranicar's father lived on a farm near Zuzumberg, a town near Novo Mesto in southern Slovenia that is about 40 miles southeast of Ljubljana. Her mother lived near Ljubljana.

Her parents sailed on the same ship to America in the 1880s, but didn't meet until after they both had moved to Aurora, Ill., near Chicago. Her father worked in the nearby city of Joliet, repairing railroad cars for the EJ & E Railroad.

Vranicar worked as a nurse until she married Martin Vranicar in 1932. She then helped her husband run Marty's Steakhouse in Bradley, Ill., until they retired and moved to Florida in 1966.

In 1985, four years after her husband's death, Vranicar visited her husband's hometown of Metlika, which is near Ljubljana.